Computing devices which allow a user to enter data with a stylus are becoming more and more popular. This type of computing device, which includes personal digital assistants and tablet personal computers, often allow a user to enter data by writing on a surface with a stylus to create electronic ink. Electronic ink is particularly convenient for users who cannot type quickly with a keyboard, or when the use of a keyboard is impractical.
While electronic ink can be very useful, it also can be more difficult for a computer to edit than typewritten text such as ASCII text. Because no two handwritten characters are alike, a computing device may inaccurately judge where one handwritten character ends and another handwritten character begins. Also, because spacing between both handwritten characters and handwritten words varies from character to character and from word to word, a computer may inaccurately determine the relationship between characters and words. In particular, it is difficult for a computer to reflow ink in the same manner as typewritten text.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a user may write a passage of electronic ink 101 into a user interface 103 for creating an electronic mail message. For the writer, the electronic ink 101 appears as a single, unified passage that can be viewed in its entirety within the user interface 103. When the electronic mail message is sent, however, the electronic ink 101 will be displayed according to the user interface employed by the message's recipient. Portions of the passage 101 thus can be hidden or segmented for the recipient. Thus, a person receiving the electronic mail message may view the message with a user interface 201 that is too small to display all of the electronic ink 101 at one time, as shown in FIG. 2. Instead, only a portion of the electronic ink 101 may be displayed. With some types of user interfaces, the recipient can employ a scroll bar 203 to view the hidden portion of the electronic ink 101. By using the scroll bar 203, however, the recipient will hide a portion of the electronic ink 101 that was initially displayed.
To address this problem, other types of user interfaces may reflow the electronic ink 101. More particularly, a recipient's user interface 201′ may segment the electronic ink 101 into multiple lines, so that the electronic ink 101 can still be viewed as an entire passage. For typewritten text, this segmentation can easily be performed. The user interface simply identifies a “space” character nearest to the right edge of the interface 201′, and segments the text at that space. With electronic ink, however, this process is more difficult. In some cases, the user interface may not be designed for the use of electronic ink. Alternately or additionally, the electronic ink to be displayed may have been created by another system or in another software application. As a result, the user interface 201′ may not be able to accurately determine a relationship between the characters and words of the electronic ink 101, the user interface 201′ may not segment the electronic ink 101 in a conventional location.
For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the user interface 201′ may segment the electronic ink in the middle of a word, making the passage 101 difficult to read. Moreover, even if the user interface 201′ properly segments the electronic ink into words, it often cannot segment the electronic ink to properly display larger groupings of electronic ink strokes, such as paragraphs, bullet points or list entries. For example, a user interface 201′ may erroneously reflow electronic ink so that the last word in one paragraph is erroneously positioned next to the first word of the subsequent paragraph.